Golden Bird

  Jos has terrible taste.

  The store, simply named Vogel, is unremarkable. No painted signs, no display case, no sitting area, nothing. If not for the window peering inside, showing shelves of chocolates, I would've never guessed that this was a chocolate store.

  But my brother's words come back to me, telling me I better be back with some comments on Vogel's chocolates, and I push the door open, hoping to be done with the little visit in under ten minutes.

  On the inside, Vogel is still nothing special. The walls are blank, the lights are bland and the shelves boring. I approach the first one, picking up the first box I can lay my hands on. The cover is clear, a tiny kestrel carved at the very centre. 

  It's dull. Lacking. Uninteresting. I look inside, at the chocolates.

  The first one that catches my eye is round, studded with tiny crystals of kosher salt forming a bird. How does a machine manage to do that? I wonder, how does it drop such tiny salt crystals so intricately?

  It's pretty.

  And above that is a square-shaped chocolate, covered in what appear to be cookie crumbs. It's not as impressive-looking as the other two, but still I find myself thinking, if I were to make something like that for my store, how would it turn out?

  "That's my Alpine collection."

  I nearly drop the box. 

  "They're inspired by the sights I've seen in my hometown, Vaduz." From the counter, a young woman appears. Her honey-gold hair is tied back with a ribbon, and her smile is just as bright as her eyes. "Some of them are light and refreshing, some of them heavy and filling." She steps out from behind the counter and approaches me. "Would you like to try them?"

  "Oh, no, no, it's fine." I hurriedly place the box back on what's probably the wrong shelf. "I'm just browsing."

  She steps closer. On her white blouse, the name Elise is stitched on the collar. "No need to pay," Elise says cheerily, "I'd like to know what you think of my creations." She takes the box off the shelf, opens it up and takes out the salt-studded chocolate. "Try this one!"

  Patronisingly, I pop it in my mouth.

  It's an explosion of flavours, sweet and bitter and salty at the same time. The chocolate is smooth, the salt crunchy and mingling with the slowly-melting chocolate. Tears nearly spring up in my eyes as I finish the chocolate - no, the work of art - and look at Elise. "...how?"

  Elise smiles. "I cook from the heart."

(Six months later...)

  "The Brussels collection was a hit!" Elise reviews our record for the month, snuggled against my side. "Everyone fell in love with that caramel apple truffle."

  I smile, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. If I'd been just a bit more judgement those months ago, I think, my chocolate store would've never gotten so successful...

  And I'd have never found love.